Monday, April 28, 2008

Help!

Real post later, all about my exciting weekend. But first, a plea for help -

How does one get rid of the smell in a load of laundry that has been sitting in one's washer for 72 hours? I've washed it twice this morning, but there is still a smell (though not as bad). Will putting it in the dryer kill it? Or seal it in?

I know someone out there is a laundry maven who will have the magic answer...

I put 1/2 to 1 cup of vinegar in the fabric softener dispenser and run it on rinse. Take out a couple of pieces and sniff them to determine how well it worked and if you need to do it again. You can then re-do your fabric softener if you want to.

My toddler son once decided to help with the laundry and dumped about a half of a bottle of concentrated Downy in the washer with my husband's dress shirts. (DH does not like fabric softener)He smelled "April fresh" for several weeks.

Well, since in your last post you compared yourself to Ma Ingalls, just ask yourself WWMID (what would Ma Ingalls do)?

Here's what she'd do: cut wood, build a roaring fire, boil all the stinky clothes, let cool, drag them to the creek, rinse them out, wring them out, hang them out to dry in the prairie sun and the prairie wind. Ah, ha! No more stinky smell!

Definitely wash them again with vinegar. I've found that if I send them to the dryer instead, they will smell ok coming out, but once the wearer starts to sweat...uh, oh...there's no mistakin' that odor!

I'm so glad I stopped by today. I ALWAYS have this problem. I get to blogging and forget that the world is out there and before I know it, two days later I need to run another load and...OOPSY! I've been using the rewash with (Note before I continue: I DO NOT DO DOMESTIC!).. ummm, rewashing with either a little pine-o-pine (close your mouth and quit gasping!) or bleach and lots of soap and fabric softener. Then when stuff comes out of the dryer it gets fabreezed. The vinigar sounds like a LOT less work!

I couldn't wait to read the advice as the same thing happened to me this past week but I only let the load sit for 24 hours! There's something about the water up here because I NEVER had this problem in Texas and I've left the laundry in the washer for four days before. Anyway, welcome home and remember to tell us what you did that worked.

1 cup baking soda in a HOT wash cycle, followed by a vinegar rinse. Followed by a regular HOT wash cycle with laundry detergent, and a hot water rinse.

This was what my grandma washed my uncles clothing in routinely when he'd get home from the place he threw around cow hides all day long. I've found it works well for any particularly stinky clothing (i.e. puke, baby clothing, etc.).

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About Me

6 children, 1 husband (I'm boring that way). Here are the kids by name and age, to make it easy on you:
Theo (23), Anna (21), David (17), Brian (14), Rachel (12), and Susie (9, and still cute as a button).
No pictures, no real names, as my husband is totally paranoid. But he's cute as a button, too.